Cloud Cult @ Orchestra Hall and Ike Reilly Assassination @ First Avenue (Concert Review)

Three weeks ago I was at Orchestra Hall for the opening of Sommerfest and an evening of Waltzes. While enjoyable, it was a tad stuffy at times...what you'd expect when you're the youngest one in the crowd by 25 years listening to centuries old pieces. Last night was decidedly more hip and saw a median age that didn't remember watching the moon landing live, as Cloud Cult brought their robust sound to the typically understated room.

Caroline Smith opened up the show with a half-dozen songs over the course of 25 minutes, introducing herself to what seemed like many new fans. Her poise and booming voice are almost unmatched on the local scene, and her performance last night, most notably a stunning cover of Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me," proved exactly that.

Next was Cloud Cult, who understood Orchestra Hall's penchant for breaking up performances into several sections. The first 45 minutes of the set didn't catch the band taking a single break...songs flowed seamlessly, all tied together with a recurring Light Chasers theme (their latest album). Anyone that has seen Cloud Cult lately may have found it curious that they busted out "There's So Much Energy in Us" as their second song of the evening. The 7+ minute epic has been a staple closer of their live sets, but here they gave us one of the most emotional and uplifting songs in their catalog to essentially kick off the show.  Shortly thereafter, we were treated to one of their recent singles, the churning push of "Running With the Wolves," which was accompanied by a lovely stop-motion animated video on the mammoth screen behind the band. This became a recurring theme throughout the evening as another 3-4 songs had their own specially created videos as well.

After the monstrous 45-minute song weaving kicked off the show, frontman Craig Minowa admitted that they had to do an acoustic set to take advantage of the beautiful room. As the crowd took their seats (yes, an Orchestra Hall crowd had been standing), Minowa made it known how special it was that his 95 year old Grandma was in the crowd. After he encouraged her to stand up and wave, he jumped right into a touching song about his Grandpa, her late husband. While the beginning of the show focused heavily on new material, the acoustic portion featured all pre-Light Chasers songs, stripped down to perfection. If pushed for a highlight, it'd be hard to ignore the cleverness of "The Ghost Inside Your House." Back in January, Cloud Cult was supposed to play The Current's 6th Birthday Party, but those plans were derailed after Minowa's health scare (which has since been rectified). Trampled by Turtles filled in admirably for Cloud Cult, and even did their own rendition of the aforementioned song to pay tribute. According to Minowa, he and his bandmates liked it so much that they decided to play it that way from now on. While it lacked the banjo and a few other bluegrass elements that TbT is know for, Cloud Cult still presented it commendably, along with a thoughtful tip of the hat.

Cloud Cult picked up the energy one last time before heading off the stage, but it wasn't until they came out for the first of two encores that you began to realize how much the crowd really loved them. As they walked back onstage, all 8 members (painters included) seemed to take a mental snapshot of what they saw in front of them. Minowa said that they didn't know what to expect from an Orchestra Hall show ("would people clap?") and that this crowd blew away any expectations that they could even dream. He continued in typical uplifting Cloud Cult fashion, inviting the crowd to sing along (and consciously remember their deceased loved ones) with the reflective "Dance for the Dead." After losing my Mom a little over two months ago, I held this sentiment especially close, and found myself tearfully chanting in refrain while a volunteer choir curiously did the same from the stage. After this heart-wrenching moment, Minowa and company jumped right into their "theme" song, the frenzied "Everybody Here Is a Cloud," which would've served as an appropriate closer were it not for the fact that the crowd and band alike had no intention of going home. After a brief pause, we were treated to one more encore, consisting of the anthemic "Love You All" and their most recognizable hit as of late, the emotionally intense "You'll Be Bright." As the band members lined up to take a bow, they were given the most floor rattling applause I've ever heard in that room.

After nearly 2 hours of Cloud Cult, I would have been content just calling it a night. Rather than packing it in, though, I headed over to First Avenue to catch Ike Reilly playing all of his seminal album, Salesmen and Racists, in full. Throughout the last decade, Minneapolis has adopted Ike as one of its own, and in that time, fans of the Chicago-born singer songwriter know what to expect from an Ike show...songs about women, drugs and drinking. Always the wisecracker, Ike decided to play the record back-to-front, much to the chagrin of my friend Kristen who always pines for "Last Time," the album's opening number (hell, the only other time he's played it recently was last year's Thanksgiving Eve show where Kristen ran into him at O'Donovan's beforehand and threatened to murder him if it wasn't on the set list). Needless to say, it was played...and no charges were filed.

The hour long tribute to Salesmen and Racists was entertaining, but offered little in terms of surprise. The crowd was most manic during the songs that Ike has been mixing into his sets for years, most notably "Hip Hop Thighs," "Commie Drives a Nova" and the participatory "Wasted Friends" & "Duty Free." The tracks that Ike seldomly plays live, like "Crave" & God Damn Shame," ultimately fell short. After the 13 songs off his breakthrough record were finished, I couldn't help but think that this type of show wasn't necessary; Ike shines when he offers a little more mystique to his sets, and that's something that was missing last night. After a brief break, Ike hit the stage again (um, in a bathrobe) to give us plenty of new songs, but frankly, none of them can really hold their own against much of Salesmen and Racists. As he jumped into "Suffer for the Trust" a little before 1:00 am, I decided to call it a night, but not before I watched two bros attempt to arm wrestle each other on the curb outside of the Record Room.

Yup, that happened.

89.3 The Current's 6th Birthday Party (Concert Review)

Over the past couple years, Minneapolitans (and you crazy St. Paulites) have become accustomed to The Current Effect. Ever since our beloved public radio station started pushing and promoting concerts a little heavier than in their infant years, those live performances have been selling out at a rapid clip, and it's created a lot of disdain in the local concert-going community that tickets have to be snatched up as soon as they go on sale. Boo-freaking-hoo. You can't have one with out the other, and I for one am thrilled with the amount of attention some of these bands & musicians have received on account of The Current. Last night at First Avenue, The Current continued to give back and be thankful for their success by presenting their [very affordable] 6th Birthday Party, which to nobody's surprise, sold out in about 22 seconds.

While it was a bummer that Cloud Cult had to bow out of the opening slot due to Craig Minowa's health, 11th hour replacements Trampled by Turtles filled in more than admirably...and provided fodder for some of the best tweets of the night (thanks to the #CurrentBday hashtag). While the manic Duluth bluegrass band blew through song after song and worked the early evening crowd into a frenzy, a tremendous amount of pride was in the air. We all knew that this was going to be a great night featuring our community's best. After absolutely shredding the stage with Current favorite "Wait So Long," the moonshine-sippers tipped their collective hat to the band they unfortunately had to replace on the bill, closing with a fantastic rendition of Cloud Cult's "The Ghost Inside Our House."

I'm pretty sure that once Trampled by Turtles left the stage, 86% of the First Avenue crowd instantly felt bad for Roma di Luna. They had some big overalls to fill, and despite getting the all-important Mayor R.T. Rybak introduction, they ultimately fell flat. After our ears were fiddled to oblivion, Roma di Luna just seemed a little out of place. Their sultry sounds are more than enjoyable, but it was one difficult room for them to play. The crowd did get into the closer "Before I Die," but it all seemed too little too late. Now, if The Current ever decides to expand their annual celebration into all of the building's digs, Roma di Luna would have been a perfect fit for a mid-evening set in the 7th Street Entry.

Jeremy Messersmith, arguably the strongest singer-songwriter currently calling Minneapolis home, was up next. And thankfully, he had the full band with him. After making the local television rounds Friday morning promoting the gig, Messersmith got to show off why The Reluctant Graveyard was one of the best local releases from 2010. With a slow and steady build-up that featured each of his band mates joining him onstage donning all white, Messersmith immediately grabbed and held the crowd's attention. Featuring a string quartet (or at times, trio) in the large majority of his set was the spectacled singer's wisest decision. His entire half-hour went all too quickly, but he made sure to enjoy the rest of the evening, culminating in this early morning tweet (via @jmessersmith):

3am. Trophy in hand. Slightly inebriated. Eating pie. Some days are too much rock and roll. Thanks for the love tonight Minneapolis.

The trophy he references was one of the many "Current Awards" handed out throughout the evening. Messersmith won for best album. Also staking claim to one of the bowling trophies handed out by Current DJs were Dessa (best local tweeter...who ripped off a sweet 140 character rhyme) and Adam Levy (best dressed...although he said his wife says he looks like a "blind Jewish man"). While the awards were fairly entertaining and made for some solid memories (i.e. Mark Mallman's "Weird" award), the presentations took a little too much time away from the music off the evening.

Enter Brother Ali. Taking the stage as if he rightfully owned it, the North Minneapolis rapper instantly gave the crowd a kick in the pants. After Messersmith's soothing set, Brother Ali brought the second wind many of us very much needed. Very few people can command a room the way Ali did, but two songs in, I resigned to the fact that I would do whatever he told me to. After his mic cut out during the third verse of "Fresh Air," Ali commented that he had always had that exact nightmare, but now that it happened, "it ain't that bad." He didn't skip a beat and ripped through rhyme after rhyme, song after song. Ali's positivity is indicative of the Minneapolis hip-hop scene, and he had to have won over a ton of new fans last night. To wrap up his set, he provided one of the more poignant moments of the night, covering the late Eyedea's anthem "Smile." Awesome.

By the time Free Energy took the stage a little before 1am, several hundred people had already decided to call it a night. They lose. The Philadelphia (by way of MN) party rockers proved why they were chosen to close out the evening. Opening, as expected, with their self-named jam, Free Energy were the perfect end to a night showcasing the Minnesota music scene. Not only did they feature a bunch of tracks from last year's Stuck On Nothing, but they also introduced us to the newly-christened rocker "Backscratcher," as well as a throwback from their Hockey Night days, complete with all original members on stage. By the end of their set, they really made the crowd thankful for the free earplugs supplied at their merch table.

Before Free Energy's set, Jill Riley teased a "special encore," which turned out to be an all-star rendition of the Lipps Inc. classic "Funky Town." Joining Free Energy on stage were Jeremy Messersmith, David Campbell, members of Roma di Luna and others. I know I'm not the only one that wanted to see Brother Ali come back on stage and lay down a few more rhymes during the breakdown, but sadly, that didn't happen.

As trendy as it's become to knock on The Current and its "effect," we all have to be thankful that we have a station that gives us nights like these. Five uniquely different acts for $12? Plus a copy of Local Current V1? Plus a young couple dry-humping in front of me during Free Energy's entire set?

Yeah, more than worth it.